America: Anti-Israel Left Rallies Behind Anti-Semitic Thomas

Helen Thomas a top speaker at major anti-Israel rally in America, despite saying Jews control the media, the government and the economy.

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish: 4/17/2011, 9:28 PM / Last Update: 4/18/2011, 2:16 AM

Former journalist Helen Thomas has been selected as a keynote speaker at a planned march against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and U.S.-Israel ties. Thomas gained notoriety in May 2010 when she said Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.”

Thomas has since given several interviews in which she not only stood by her original statements, but made far more controversial remarks, including statements proclaiming that Jews control the United States government and the economy.

The organizers of “Move Over AIPAC” said they were “delighted” when Thomas agreed to speak. Thomas will be awarded a “pink badge of courage” at the rally.

The anti-AIPAC rally, which opposes U.S. military ties to Israel and not only AIPAC specifically, is supported by dozens of far-left American groups, including the American branches of extremist Israeli groups such as Adalah and the Committee Against House Demolitions. Many of the groups call for a boycott of Israel.

Another supporter of the rally is Lynn Gottlieb, a Renewal movement rabbi who led a “reconciliation” delegation to Iran in 2008 and who supports a boycott of Israel. Yet another is Hedy Epstein, a long-time anti-Israel activist who has aroused controversy by referring to herself as a Holocaust survivor despite having spent World War II in Britain.

Also in support are John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of the book The Israel Lobby.

In a recent interview with Playboy magazine, Thomas stated that Jews “are European” and that Jews have not been persecuted “since 1945” - ignoring the millions of Jews from the Middle East and north Africa, and their expulsion from their homes in the late 1940s and the 1950s, as well as the persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and elsewhere in the second half of the twentieth century.

Thomas defended the murder of innocent Israeli civilians, saying that Palestinian Authority Arabs who bomb civilians “act out of despair and desperation.” PA violence “is to protect what little remains of Palestine,” she said.

She also voiced standard anti-Semitic sentiments, claiming that Jews control the government and the economy. “They have power in every direction... Power over the White House, over Congress... Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There's total control... It isn't the two percent [the percent of Americans who are Jewish – ed.]. It's real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion.”